Appendix M: Value systems reflection coding

Levels of selfassessment (drawn

Student responses that include this level of self-assessment (out of 14)

FT: student selfassessment includes

1. Cyril: So far this semester my writing has become grammatically more polished. I have
cut down on comma splices, and improved my proofreading efficacy.
2. Simone: The place where I can see the most improvement is the mechanics of the essay,
such as basic comma usage and the layout of the essay.
3. Clive: I want to write a good essay and to get a good grade for it. I am proud, because I
think, that I did a good job on writing this essay. (short quotes, more analysis) I have
shorter quotes with key ideas. I still need to work on my grammar and sentence structure.
4. Cressida: Make more edits and have a more polished final version.
5. Beatriz: I am proud of the fact that I finished this essay on time. Im proud that I was able
to get my ideas down in the required amount of page numbers.
6. Tommaso: Finnish essay.

FP: student selfassessment includes

1. Cyril: I want to have no topic sentences that are descriptive and not
argumentative.
2. Aria: I'd like to make sure my essay is properly argumentative. I'm aiming to have a
so-what that makes sense within the context of my essay, but is still substantial.
Ive noticed that my body paragraphs tend to be more description, however. I feel like Ive
been working on specifically analyzing descriptive passages in my essay.
3. Simone: Show my writing style in my essay: tell a story, engage the audience
Also the what-how-so what? theses have improved my essays enormously because the
arguments are able to use textual evidence, the authors opinion and my opinion all in one.
4. Michalis: My goals for this essay are to hit the "so-what" factor of my thesis. I also want
to make my topic sentences less descriptive and more argumentative.
5. Clive: Also I have a better connection between my thesis and topic sentences in my
paragraphs.
6. Cressida: Have clear topic sentences and make sure each body paragraph serves a
purpose. I think that this essay is more structured than my previous one, as it has a clear
thesis, topic sentences, and unique paragraphs that serve their own purpose.
7. Beatriz: I want to work on having my "so-what" part of my thesis and essay. My goal
for this essay is to have a very strong argument and work on supporting that with sufficient

evidence.
8. Sami: - Write a clear, concrete, argumentative thesis statement.
- Make my topic sentences and arguments more concise and related to my thesis.
- Rather than describe, turn my points into convincing arguments.
9. Sylvia: My main goal for this essay to have have a clear, arguable thesis to set the tone
of my paper. I would like to have strong topic sentences as well.
10. Anastasia: To have the essay ORGANIZED and NOT ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!
11. Nadezhda: 1) To engage meaningfully with the "so-what" of my essay,
2) To avoid the pitfalls of the "shopping-list" style essay,
3) And to have an effective conclusion.
I think I managed to prevent my essay from being a shopping-list by having my body
paragraphs build off each other... maybe... and I was kind of proud of that?
12. Theodor: 1.) Make sure to be analytical and show not tell.
13. Tommaso: Make clear connections between thesis and intro sentences.
Have a clear, argumentative thesis.
14. Darius: 1. Continue to improve my argumentative thesis/essay writing.
The two contributing factors are improved thesis-writing ability (it still needs a lot of work,
but its better than it was before) and improved argumentative structure throughout the
essay. These two things make the purposes of my essays more valuable and the
effectiveness of my essays more intentional.
FR: student selfassessment includes
reflection about selfregulation (the
capability to create
internal feedback and
to self-assess)

1. Cyril: I did myself a disservice in writing this essay. I dont think that I developed my
thesis or argued my points particularly well. My focus drifted throughout the essay as I
addressed different parts of the prompt. Knowing what I can do as a writer I am not proud
of any part of the essay I wrote. When I wrote the essay I struggled with budgeting I my
time during a very stressful midterm week. I had difficulty developing an affinity for the
prompt and a thesis that I wanted to argue and develop.
Goal setting = 4: Because of midterms I found myself not prioritizing this essay and not
prioritizing the goals I set. Because of this I think that goal setting was not particularly
helpful.
2. Cressida: I think that completing a rewrite of my previous essay really helped me realize
what I could improve on in terms of analytical writing. When writing essays, I tend to not
create an outline and usually just start writing anything that comes to mind, usually
resulting in an unorganized and choppy essay. I learnt that the best way for me to write
effectively is to have a brief plan or idea of what I am going to write about, create a thesis
statement and possible topic sentences, then start analyzing text and writing the body of
the essay. This way, my ideas would stay on track throughout my writing. That being said, I

also realize that I should not allow an outline to constrict my writing, as new ideas might
suddenly develop that could benefit the overall of the essay. For my next essay, I hope to
take better advantage of peer review, create more drafts and edits, and finish with a clean
cut version.
3. Beatriz: I am proud of the fact that I finished this essay on time I struggled with getting
this essay done. Ive had an extremely busy and stressful week with all my work that Ive
gotten and the amount of projects that Ive had to do. I struggled with trying to get my
words out in a cohesive way and for it to make sense. I knew what I wanted to talk about
but I struggled with putting it into an essay format.
I think it would of helped me more if I actually took my goals and tried to apply them to my
essay. I knew what my goals were and I had them in the back of my head but I was so
focused on getting it done so I had time for other homework that I didnt listen to my goals I
set as much as I should of.
4. Nadezhda: goal setting = 4: Im not really sure if it helped or not. I had almost forgotten
about my initial goals by the time that I was writing my essay maybe we should do some
sort of reminder of what are goals are in class before they are due?
5. Theodor: Be organized and not procrastinate.
FS: student selfassessment includes
reflection about the
self as person (I am
proud of this piece,
I have always
struggled with
writing)

1. Aria: My last essay wasn't particularly clear, and I'm somewhat worried that this one
isn't, so I'd hope that this one is easy to understand I'm aiming to have a so-what that
makes sense within the context of my essay, but is still substantial - I think I'm getting there
at this point, but I'm not sure.
Im proud of how I structured my argument - I know that Ive had issues with clarity on a
macro-level, but felt like I improved in this essay. That said, this was one of the things I had
the most difficulty with - I had to rearrange my essay several times to get a structure I was
happy with Overall, I still have room to improve with some of these things, but I felt like I
made leaps from my Gatsby essay.
Ive always considered myself a capable analytical essay writer, due to somewhat extensive
practice.
2. Simone: I am proud of my argument because it took me a very long time to find my
thesis, and I think that it can be counter-argued. I struggled for a long time to actually sit
down and reread all of the texts in order to find a good thesis. Once I did, my thesis was
apparent enough but I wish that when we had been reading the texts in class, we could
have had more argument focused discussions.
3. Michalis: I am proud because I think my essay has a great last sentence, and that I finally
achieved the so what factor.
4. Clive: I am proud, because I think, that I did a good job on writing this essay.

5. Sylvia: I am really proud of my thesis I spent a lot of time on my topic sentences, but
Im not necessarily proud of them. I struggled a lot with closing sentences on this essay.
They seemed forced as I was writing them, and I am not satisfied with how I concluded my
essay. It has been very frustrating for me, because my analytical essays shine in my APUSH
class, but I am putting in much more work to these essays and not benefitting.
While I was writing, I had my goals in mind, but they only served to frustrate me. They
seemed to taunt me when I was struggling to write, because I am frustrated with myself
that I cannot seem to write an analytical essay now when I was easily able to last year.
Other than my thesis, I feel like it is getting harder for me to write. This can partly be
attributed to me having to do the majority of my writing late at night, but I feel like I am
missing something in my writing that I had last year.
6. Anastasia: I am pretty proud of this essay. I put a lot more time into this essay and I think
my essay shows that.
7. Darius: I wasnt entirely sure where this essay was going when I started writing it, but I
liked where it ended up. Its an interesting argument, I think I think I did a good job of
this, especially in the last two paragraphs.